Date: Feb 09, 2013 Source: (
click here to go to the source)
Los Angeles, CA
(
9
February
2013
)
--
SCALABLE
Network Technologies, Inc. (
SCALABLE
), the leader in
communications
simulation technology, announced
today
the availability of a new Scenario Player module for the
QualNet® and EXat
a® communications simulation platforms.
Scenario Player reads the scenario configuration files
for the critical communications models
created by the platforms and presents the behavior represented in the
models in a highly visual manner that is easily und
erstood by senior managers and mission commanders.
C
ommunications systems for
critical environments such as large
-
scale public safety, online financial transactions or
military missions are architected to deliver as close to 100 percent availability as pos
sible since any disruption in
the real
-
time flow of information has costs measured in lives and livelihood. SCALABLE communications simulation
platforms enable network planners and IT specialists to model their
environments in very high fidelity, and
effi
ciently
run through a wide range of
very realistic
potential operating scenarios
, including cyber attacks,
to
ensure
communications will perform as required. It has always been a challenge, however, to present the results
of the simulation processes to no
n
-
technical personnel who may have senior level responsibility for the networked
environment. Scenario Player effectively addresses this issue with high
-
resolution 3D graphical animation.
"Over the last 14 years, as communications simulation technology ha
s moved from the research lab
into
mainstream IT, the user profile has dramatically changed"
, stated
Andy Mazzarella
, SCALABLE
CEO
. "
Business
executives and military commanders need information on their critical communications in a manner
they can
quickly grasp and respond to. Our new Scenario Player takes all of the hard work that communications
specialists
put in to their planning and presents it so that leadership decisions can be made."
Scenario Player is based on a modern high
-
perform
ance graphical rendering engine used extensively in the gaming
industry. It processes the results of a scenario simulation in real time,
displaying the network elements and the
communications flows between them. If there is a terrain definition as part o
f the
scenario, it is displayed in high
resolution, and the
mobile
network elements move realistically across the terrain.
Scenario Player is strictly a replay application, with no scenario configuration file editing capabilities.
The user
running
Scenario Player can move through the modeled virtual environment using standard
mouse
-
driven
pan
-
and
-
zoom mechanisms. Other user controls include:
A toggle to switch between the standard 3D and a look
-
down 2D mode
PR130209
-
SCAL
ABLE
-
RELEASES
-
SCENARIO
-
PLAYER
Page
2
of
3
A toggle to switch the display into a hig
h contrast mode that makes the network elements and the
communications flows stand out more strongly from the terrain background
A switch to
enable the user to enter human
-
in
-
the
-
loop (HITL) commands
A toggle to switch basic node statistical display on or
off
Versions
Two versions of the module are being announced: Scenario Player & Scenario Player Mobile. Scenario Player
(standard)
can be installed on
either
the same host as a SCALABLE simulatio
n platform
or on a remote host. In
both
case
s
, Scenario Player is configured to connect to
a
simulation platform and use the underlying
simulation
engine to
drive the scenario display. When a scenario is run in the Player, it uses the resource licenses configured
in the platform for Model Libraries
and processor cores.
Scenario Player Mobile can also be installed on either the same host as a SCALABLE simulation platform or on a
remote host, but it includes an embedded version of the SCALABLE simulation engine.
When a scenario is played
in Scenario P
layer Mobile, it uses the embedded simulation engine to drive the display
. This embedded engine
includes a full set of resource licenses for all SCALABLE Model Libraries which do not require user
-
compilation,
except the Military Radios library. The prima
ry intent of Scenario Player Mobile is to
enable scenarios built by
skilled technical personnel on simulation platforms to be viewed and analyzed by other personnel completely
"untethered" from the platforms. For example, a scenario developed in a lab usi
ng the EXata platform on a Linux
server can be copied onto a PC and taken to a presentation.
Scenario Player
is
supported on
Microsoft Windows
7 systems
and
the CentOS 5.3 Linux platform
.
Support for
other versions of Linux platforms, and MS Windows 8, wi
ll be available
later this year
.
Pricing and Availability
A
Scenario Player
(standard)
license
for either MS Windows or Linux is priced at $7,500.
A license for
Scenario
Player Mobile for either MS Windows or Linux is priced at $13,500.
Scenario Player
(
standard)
will be available in
early Q2
to coincide with the releases of the
next
simulation
platforms
: QualNet 7 and EXata 5
. Scenario Player
Mobile is available now.
Backward Compatibility
Scenario Player Mobile is fully compatible with scenario configuration files created on the most recent versions of
the simulation platforms: QualNet 6 and EXata 4. Scenarios created on older versions of the platforms may work,
but some inconsistent behav
ior has been found in testing. When Scenario Player (standard) is available, it will
require
QualNet 7 or EXata 5.
